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  “How do you know what time I work?” Bess asked suspiciously, but she was already slinging her backpack over her shoulders and facing toward the boardwalk rather than the street.

  “I just know.” Nick wiggled his hand and made a “woowoo” noise. “Like a psychic.”

  “Uh-huh.” She hooked her fingers into the straps of her backpack just below her armpits. The sidewalk wasn’t deserted even this late, but it was far less crowded and she and Nick could walk side by side.

  She paused when they got to the ramp leading to the boardwalk next to the Blue Surf Motel, toeing off her sneakers and pulling off her socks. She tucked the socks inside the shoes and put them in her backpack. She wiggled her toes on the wood, still warm from the summer sun though it had set a couple hours before. She sighed.

  Nick laughed. “Long day?”

  “A lot of standing. You have to stand at work, too, don’t you?”

  They walked together to the stairs leading down to the sand. Streetlamps lit the beach here, turning it to stark whiteness but leaving the sea itself in shadows. The sand was still kicked up, not yet smoothed by the grooming trucks. She spied more than one half-destroyed castle.

  “Yeah.” Nick bent to untie his boot laces and pulled his boots off. He staggered, off balance.

  Bess laughed when he fell, and he grinned up at her, his eyes flashing. He got up, brushing the sand from his rear and dangling his boots from his other hand.

  “You’re lucky I don’t get easily insulted,” he told her.

  “Sorry,” she said without remorse.

  Nick snorted. “Uh-huh. Right. I know how girls are.”

  “That’s what I heard.” Bess scraped one foot along the chilling sand as she walked and left a line behind them. In the morning it would be gone.

  Nick turned around to face her, walking backward. “Heard what?”

  Bess looked sideways at him. “That you know all about girls. A lot of girls.”

  He turned again, still walking. “Who told you that?”

  “Who do you think?”

  He shot her a glance. “Same bitch who told you I was queer? She’s a real reliable source.”

  Bess feigned nonchalance. “I’m just saying what she said.”

  “Which is what, exactly?”

  They’d reached an outcrop of rock, big slabs of it poking from the sand like the back of an alligator, or a dinosaur. The jetty. The waves crashed louder here. Bess hopped up on the rock and Nick followed.

  “Well, after I told her I knew you weren’t gay—”

  “Jesus.” Nick snorted. “Ryan really reamed her for that, by the way.”

  “Did he?” Bess hopped onto the sand on the rock’s other side. The lamps had ended with the boardwalk. Light still shone behind them but in front the only glow came from the windows of houses lining the beach.

  “Yeah. He was pissed.”

  This was interesting. “Because she said you were gay?”

  “No.” Nick snorted again, laughing. “Because she tried to get me to fuck her.”

  “Oh.” Bess wished she hadn’t asked. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known, but she didn’t want to hear it.

  “I didn’t.” Nick stopped walking, and so did she. “If you care.”

  Bess shrugged. “Why should I care?”

  He stared at her. The wind came up and tugged at the tied ends of his bandanna. He reached up to slide it off his head, and the wind played then with his hair. After what felt like a very long time, he smiled. “You tell me.”

  “According to Missy you fuck a lot of girls.”

  “I didn’t fuck her.”

  Bess started walking again, her stride determined. Light behind, darkness ahead. She didn’t need the light to know where she was going.

  “It’s not my business, Nick.”

  “So Missy told you I’m what, some sort of big slut?”

  It wasn’t a word Bess had often heard used for a boy, and she laughed. Nick didn’t. “Are you?”

  “I thought it wasn’t any of your business.”

  “It’s not!”

  “I’m not queer,” Nick said, “and I’ve screwed pretty many girls. Just not Missy.”

  He’d stopped walking again, and Bess did, too. She turned to face him. He’d linked his boot laces together over one wrist and shoved his hands into his pockets again. She crossed her arms, wishing she’d taken her sweatshirt out of her backpack before hitting the beach.

  “I’m sorry,” she said after a minute stretched out with nothing but the sound of the waves between them. “It’s really none of my business.”

  “What else did she say about me?”

  From farther up the beach came the sound of laughter and the sudden bright flare of green glow sticks being activated. Bess watched them circling through the air, tossed by unseen hands, before looking back at Nick.

  “That you used to go out with Heather.”

  Nick’s breath hissed out of him and he glanced away. He pulled the package of Swisher Sweets from his pocket and lit one, cupping it to keep the wind from blowing out the lighter’s flame. The fire lit his face briefly, casting it in red and gold. When he clicked the lid shut, everything seemed blacker until her eyes adjusted.

  “And let me guess. I screwed around on her, right? Broke her heart? Oh, I was so eeevil, right?”

  “Is that what happened?”

  “She cheated on me, that’s what happened.”

  “I’m sorry.” Bess wasn’t surprised. She didn’t ask if Heather had broken his heart.

  Nick shrugged. Fragrant smoke tickled her nose. “Shit happens.”

  “Even so. That sucks.”

  He looked at her. “Yeah. Whatever. That was the last time I’ll ever be someone’s ‘boyfriend.’”

  Bess paused as a group of teenagers ran past them, tossing their glow sticks and shouting.

  “You make it sound like a bad thing,” she said when they’d gone.

  They started walking again. Every now and again Nick’s cigar would glow as he drew in a breath. Bess watched the cherry tip get brighter and fade as she waited for him to answer. They were almost at her house.

  “Yeah,” he said finally.

  “So…you just…fuck them?” She stumbled on the word even though it wasn’t as if she was a prude. No matter what Missy said. “What kind of girl puts up with that?”

  “The lucky ones?” He grinned, but when she didn’t smile in return, it faded. “Hey, I was kidding. I didn’t screw Missy. She’s Ryan’s girl. I don’t poach.”

  That term, the one she used herself, set Bess back a step. “Well…good to know.”

  She pointed up ahead to the deck of her grandparents’ house. Lights blazed from inside the kitchen and living room, and several candles burned on the railings. The wind brought the sound of laughter. Probably her aunt Linda. The little kids would be in bed, but the nightly game of rummy would just be getting under way.

  “That’s mine,” she said.

  “Nice.” Nick stopped when she did.

  “It’s okay. Crowded but…yeah, it’s nice.” Bess was tired of defending where she lived. Missy usually made it into such a big deal.

  Nick looked up at the house, then at her, and finally down to the water. “I guess I’ll head back, then.”

  “Oh…okay.”

  “Unless you want me to stay? Invite me up to meet the folks?” He grinned at her.

  “Umm…”

  “Nah.” He cut her off before she could answer. “I’ve got to get going.”

  “Thanks for walking me home.” Bess wanted to explain it wasn’t that she didn’t want to invite him in. She never invited anyone in. But it wasn’t anything about Nick in particular….

  “No problem.” He bent to pick up a stone or a piece of shell, and winged it into the waves. “I wanted to tell Missy we spent the night together and my mama didn’t raise a liar.”

  Bess startled into laughter. “Oh…!”

  He turned to her and smile